Water - That life giving stuff
June 11th 2009 03:38
I know there is plenty of water on our planet, so does everyone else. But it is either salty or in the wrong place. We are running out of usable water. We are human and our bodies are 65% water, to maintain life we need water.
Again I can only speak of Australia, my homeland. The coastal fringes all seem to do well in the water stakes with the inland being pretty dry. However this land has been here for millions of years and has had sufficient water to survive whatever has been thrown at it for all that time. So why are we now so short of water in the inland?
Perhaps it's because we are human, and our major priority in our working life is to make enough money to live well, and leave a bit 'for the kids.' This priority makes us narrow our focus down to the obvious economics of staying ahead of our neighbors. To make our mark.
This results in the lack of thought and consideration for the wider environment in which we live, and on which we depend for our very existence. Water is wasted and used like there is no tomorrow.
The statistical boffins say that each person uses 900 litres of water per day. I say: How? Must have a very old flush toilet and a house full of diarrhea victims, or perhaps they wash four cars a day each without turning the hose off. I know there are but two of us in our house but we do not use anything like that amount of water. But then, we have to rely on water from the rain and a bore in the backyard. We also have to pump every drop and pay for the electricity ourselves.
The big problem isn't household water; it's irrigation water for agricultural purposes. Over a period of years all state Govts seem to have sold water rights amounting to more water than the river system can deliver in a good year. To add to the dilemma, we have had somewhere between 7 - 10 consecutive years of drought.
There is no water in the rivers systems. In NSW alone there 23 rivers where the flow, if any, never reaches the river mouth. All of these rivers eventually find their way into the Murray River and exit into the sea via Lake Alexandrina in South Australia. At the time of writing this Lake's water level is about two metres below sea level. There is no water coming downstream from the feeder rivers in NSW, Queensland and Victoria. The systems are all but dry.
On the other side of the coin Queensland's outback is flooding and water is flowing into Lake Eyre in South Australia.
The contrasts of this big country are immense. However the water shortage is most serious where irrigation infrastructure has been installed by businesses with the assurance from Govt that water would be available. No one told Mother nature that humanity demanded water be available at all times for seasonal crops, and as Mother nature her own plans, there is no water.
Where do we go from here? The Federal Govt wants to use taxpayers money to buy back the water licenses from those willing to sell and hopefully gain some surplus water in the rivers when it does rain. Enviromental flows, they call it. Water to make the wetlands wet again, provide homes and breeding grounds for water birds, and perhaps moisture evaporation will help fuel further rainfall.
There is much talk of sustainable agriculture with irrigation, but whatever is finally decided, one thing is sure: the amount of water pumped out of the river systems must be reduced by a substantial amount. My personal thoughts are that only rare and flooding rains in all the catchment areas of inland flowing rivers will change the present state of water shortages.
This happened in the 1950's and massive damage was done by the floodwaters. This must happen again, there is no alternative. Not now, the current culture is too embedded to make any significant change to irrigation areas, which are sustainable in an economic sense. I fear that much of what is now irrigated may have to revert to dryland farming.
Therefore dryland farming must be researched and developed as the inevitable climate change becomes more evident. It is feasable, it can be profitable, and it must have the research and resources provided to make it work. New crops, new methods or whatever it takes. For instance most of our power generation stations use water for cooling, yet we live in country loaded with sunshine, the source of solar power, why are we NOT using it to a much higher degree? Solar energy is generated without water.
Within this article I have put mt thoughts and ideas. I am only one old man who has lived long enough to see the rivers run dry. When it does rain in the inland the rivers with water are pumped dry again by the irrigators. What about the land? It needs water too. The land supports us all, feeds us and provides the raw materials we need for our continued existence. Who will put their hand up and take responsibility for wrong decisions being made, inaccurate information passed out as truth, and the promotion of greed as success. Governments? NO Big business? No
Financial organisations? NO. Mr Nobody is the fall guy as usual.
Perhaps the foregoing will incite some one to take up the job of getting rid of unnecessary irrigation farms, research what is needed for dry land farming to be consistently profitable, and find some way to make the political machine open and honest in it's decision making. That's all.
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